


"I Saved a Piece for You."

by impulse_baker



Series: 100 Ways to Say 'I Love You' [9]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dean is a Sweetheart, Domestic Fluff, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Idiots in Love, M/M, any death after Kevin's is voided, holiday fluff, pie sharing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 13:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13124997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impulse_baker/pseuds/impulse_baker
Summary: Dean tries to find ways for Cas to enjoy food, despite his inability to taste anything but individual molecules. Can't go wrong with pie, right? Getting to share said pie with the same fork is only a bonus.





	"I Saved a Piece for You."

Dean never realized how much a Bunker full of people could eat, let alone a Bunker full of hunters. He felt like he was constantly fixing something up for someone. Alex praised his pasta salad that he had originally made at Sam’s request and what he had made to last two days, lasted one meal. Charlie exploited him for his grilled cheese sandwiches with an exaggerated, comically ridiculous flutter of her eyelashes. Jack and Donna ate so many of the cookies he made, he started making excess dough and then just freezing it for later. At one point he caught the kid trying to unstick a ball of dough that had frozen to the cookie sheet. Eileen told him his chicken marsala was the best thing she had ever tasted, which was later followed by Sam and his puppy dogs, privately pleading him to teach him how to make it so he could impress her.

He enjoyed it though. He got a sense of satisfaction from seeing everyone full and sated and happy, and it didn’t hurt that he had been called the best cook in the world on multiple occasions since he started feeding everyone. It wasn’t that Sam didn’t compliment him enough. It was just different hearing it from someone who he hadn’t been making cereal for from childhood.

 

Most of them were sitting at the map table right now, digging into their piled high plates. Castiel was seated between Charlie and Eileen, occasionally filling in the conversation whenever they all had their mouths full. Even though Dean was sitting directly across from him and couldn’t actually see his hands, he could tell that they were folded in his lap, fingers probably tapping on the knuckles of the other hand. His angel preferred to listen to others. He was a very attentive audience and it was one of the many things that Dean loved about him. But right now, he could tell that he felt a little uncomfortable with the lack of conversation that resulted from people being immersed in Dean’s cooking. Even Charlie, who was known to unintentionally speak with food in her mouth if she had enough to say, was spending more time chewing that talking.

Cas didn’t eat because unfortunately, everything still tasted like molecules to him. They had experimented with even the simplest foods, but he still registered every different molecular taste and it just wasn’t enjoyable when there was so much happening at that level.

He wanted Cas to enjoy every part of having family together for the holidays, including congregated meals. This was pretty much his idea to begin with, after all. So, he stood up and went to the kitchen to try something else. He dug through the fridge until he found an organic, farmer’s market bought plain yogurt, and then started peeling an apple. He set it aside after he had chopped it up into bite sized pieces, and spooned out some of the yogurt into a bowl. The apples were tossed into the bowl and he folded in two tablespoons of honey they had bought from the same farmers market. Just for the aesthetic, because it seemed like something his angel would appreciate, he drizzled some of the honey on top in squiggly lines.

He returned to the table and put the bowl in front of Cas, who looked up at him surprised.

“It’s just yogurt, which shouldn’t have a whole bunch of different molecules, because it’s just plain old fermented lactose, right? And apples are just, fructose and whatever, and I read somewhere that honey is pretty homogenous and molecularly simple. So uh…you know. Hopefully you like it, or whatever.” He dashed back around the table to resume his seat before he embarrassed himself further. The more he thought about it, the stupider it seemed. He was a high school drop-out, what did he know about molecular structure and all that shit? He should have asked Sam first. Or literally anyone else before he went off of his own thought process. Now he had made an utter fool of himself and pretty much declared his feelings in front of everyone and it was too much. Maybe he would excuse himself and hide away in his room.

“Dean, this is wonderful. I appreciate it greatly.” His small smile was radiant, and Dean thought that if it was any sincerer, it would surely blind them all. “You are right about the underwhelming mixture of molecules.”

That was it. No one else around the table that was listening in with not so well hidden smiles on their faces could fathom the meaning behind those words, or the level of emotion they held.

“Yeah, don’t mention it. Just eat up like a normal person.” He held up his fork to try and hide his smile.

“I’m not a normal person, Dean. I’m an angel.”

Charlie let out a loud guffaw and nudged Cas playfully. “You know what he means, you smarty pants.”

Everyone was nice enough not to say anything out loud. But the kindness ended there because every time he and Cas were together, he could see the sympathetic smiles all around him.

 _Shut up you jerks._ He just hoped Cas didn’t notice. He doubted it though. If Dean was talking to him, his attention never strayed.

 

 

“Dean!” The angel approached him while he was melting the cheese for broccoli cheese soup.

“What’s up?”

“I have to go. Claire just called. She needs me to pick her up.”

Dean exuded gratitude that the sentence didn’t end after _I have to go._ He wouldn’t have been able to take that.

“Do you want me to go instead? Or I could go with you, if you wanted. How far away is she?”

“She is in Lebanon, Nebraska. She told me she accidentally set her GPS there instead of Lebanon Kansas.”

“She called asking you to pick her up?” It surprised him that independent, stubborn Claire Novak would call to be picked up.

“Well no, she called to inform me that she would be delayed because she wanted to sleep before driving again, for fear that she would fall asleep at the wheel. I insisted on coming to get her and she acquiesced after some convincing.”

“Yeah that sounds about right.” He chuckled. “Do you want to take Baby? The roads might be a little rough right now. I just put in snow safe tires.”

“Thank you, but I was planning on taking my truck.”

“I hate that thing almost as much as I hated the fucking Pimpmobile.”

“It is a reliable vehicle. And I uhh, I got a cassette tape player that I keep on the dashboard. Sam helped me purchase it. So I could listen to our, I mean _your_ songs.”

Dean wrapped him up in a hug because well, he was allowed to hug him goodbye without it being weird. Hugs were things they did. “Drive safe, Cas. Text me when you get there.”

“I will.” He hugged back and if Dean’s mind wasn’t making him imagine things, the angel let go as reluctantly as he did.

This was where couples would share a quick kiss, but unfortunately, that wasn’t something Dean could cross yet. So he resigned to just watching him go with a final pat to his shoulder. He hated watching him walk away.

 

 

To fill the time, Dean made pies. Pie is comfort food and he was man enough to admit at least to himself every now and then when he needed comfort. There were enough people to share with that Sam couldn’t get onto him about excessively baking and he certainly took advantage of that. Besides, he thought pie and coffee would go nice with watching whatever movie they planned on putting on tonight. He even baked one that was just an apple and honey filling so Cas could enjoy as much as he could with the rest of them.

He and Claire still hadn’t returned by the time everyone else decided to start the movie, and everyone sat in pretty much the same arrangement from their previous movie nights. Just as quickly as everything else, the pie also swiftly disappeared onto people’s plates. Luckily there was enough of the special pie and the cherry left that he could have a slice and still have some left for Claire and Cas.

He checked his phone constantly, waiting to hear back. Cas texted him about two hours ago, letting him know that he had Claire safely with him and that they were headed _home_. It felt amazing to hear Cas say those words. _I’m coming home._ He hadn’t even been able to eat any of the pie on his plate from sheer worry. It had been snowing for a few days on and off and the roads were bound to be bad.

He wasn’t paying much attention to the movie, so when he heard footsteps, he had to will himself to stay in place and not rush out to meet Cas by the door. Instead, he gripped his plate tightly and waited for them to enter the room. Luckily, Donna made enough commotion about greeting the two of them that he could take a breath and relax into the knowledge that they were safe. Cas seemed to be headed in his direction so share their space from the previous movie night, but Donna caught him before he could get far, so that they could go to the kitchen and get some food.

Claire re-entered with a plate stacked with food and a slice of pie nearly spilling from the side. Cas followed behind, empty handed. He sat next to Dean and informed him that there was only one slice left that he let Claire have. He assured him it wasn’t a big deal but _it was a big deal dammit._ Dean made an _entire_ pie for the guy and he didn’t get to have a single piece? Granted, he hadn’t eaten any either, but that wasn’t the point.

“I saved a piece for you.” Dean held up his own slice with a smile. Sure, Cas wouldn’t probably enjoy the taste as much as him, but it was about the experience. Dean could live – barely – if he missed out on pie for a night, especially if it meant his angel got to have some instead.

Cas forked off a piece and smiled shyly, then proceeded to offer it up to Dean. “Thank you for thinking of me, Dean.”

The hunter really didn’t have a choice with that hand hovering in front of his face, so he leaned forward and took the fork into his mouth, then licked his lips where excess filling was stuck. “Yeah, of course.”

Sure, pie was amazing and delicious, but who knew _sharing_ a pie would make it that much better? Maybe it was just because he was being fed by an angel. Maybe there was some mojo at work when the modest sized slice seemed to last an entire movie between the two of them. Dean couldn’t find it in himself to care.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays, friends! I hope you enjoyed this! This is a sequel to the previous work, and the next fic will act as a sequel to this one. Just a little holiday portion to satisfy my holiday fluff cravings. Let me know what you think!
> 
> Previous work: "Take My Seat."  
> Next work: "I'm Sorry for Your Loss."


End file.
